Barclays Capital recruitment exam - how fast can you think?

Last night I sat the on-campus test for the graduate recruitment program at Barclays Capital. Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of Barclays Bank, tests over 10,000 students world-wide each year BEFORE asking them to sumbit their resumes. Their theory is that they are a global employer (they took two Melbourne MBA students for positions in London last year), and that since not all business schools require the GMAT for their applications, they should give all applicants a fair and equal chance by having their own test.

I did a 96-question psychological profile ("are you a team member or an individual?" "are you interested in making a lot of money or having a lot of responsibility?" etc) followed by a verbal and a quant test. The questions weren't that difficult (any reasonably smart junior high school student could probably do them), but the amount of time allowed for the test was miniscule - four sections, each with around 15 - 20 multiple choice questions, but only 10 minutes allowed per section! None of the answers are immediately obvious - the questions require logical thinking and several calculations.

My advice to anyone who is planning to sit the test this season - make sure you're alert, bring a stopwatch, and make sure you are completely familar with the functions of your calculator. I didn't finish any of the sections (although I did randomly select an answer for the questions that I didn't have time to do), but I was fairly comfortable that I'd done reasonably well.

I should know within a couple of weeks whether I've made it to the next round.

Does the MBA force you to become a morning person?

Coming from a background in the IT industry, I would probably not be shocking people if I told you that I'm by no means a morning person. When I was working in IT back in Australia (especially when I was living the life of a computer programmer) I would struggle to make it to the office by 9:30. The first hour or so would be spent catching up on emails, surfing the web, consuming my first coffee, etc, and I typically wouldn't start any serious work until around 10:30. (Of course, I typically had dinner at the office, and would stay through to around 9:00pm)

I did well in Melbourne during my first two terms to avoid having any MBA classes starting before 8:00am. An 8:00am start at MBS would meaning leaving St Kilda by 7:15 at the latest. Which means getting up around 6:00am (ouch!). Here at Columbia I have one class that starts at 8:15am on Tuesday and Thursdays. The six-minute commute is definitely handy, but I still need to get my gf to give me a wake up call to ensure that I get up on time.

This is something I need to change. As an MBA graduate I'm going to have to be awake and alert in the mornings. Perhaps I should enrol in a bunch of 8:00am classes during my final term at Melbourne, and force myself to change ;-)

Changing of the guard at Hawthorn

News from back home: Daniel Chick has been traded to West Coast, and Hawthorn picks up ruckman Peter "Spider" Everitt from the Saints (source: The Age)

"Picking a VC is like picking a surgeon"

We had a guest lecturer today in my Introduction to Venturing* - Bob Higgins, founder and managing partner of VC firm Highland Capital Partners, Harvard Business School professor, and supporting "actor" in the documentary movie startup.com.

While it would be inappropriate to share with you the full contents of his presentation, there were a few key observations / comments that I found interesting:

• When evalutating an opportunity, VCs primarily look at the experience of the proposed management team. The market, product, and economics of the deal are obviously also considered, but the management team is essential.
  
• For around 80% of deals, VCs actually seek out entrepreneurs (by attending conferences and networking) rather than waiting for business plans to land on their doorstep.
  
• Virtually no new VC money is being raised at the moment, but there's about US$50 billion in existing funds waiting to be invested in ventures.
  
• For most deals, VC's like to take around 25% - 50% of the equity in a company, but it's important to ensure that the management team still end up with a decent share of the company (around 20%).
  
• A 'good' entrepreneur should be selective about which VC firms to approach. A VC will be making more than just a financial investment in your firm; they'll be on the board, will probably be involved in recruiting members of the management team, and may even be in a position to fire you if you don't perform (although this is rare).
  

* (full review of the course coming this weekend, I promise ;-)

Investment Banking exam

I have my first Columbia exam next Monday. It's a mid-term (20%) for my Investment Banking course.

I've been a little dissatisifed with this course so far. The classes are very difficult to prepare for as the professor does not provide very detailed notes and I don't have the experience/know how to provide enough intuition for the cases, however when I attend the classes the guest speakers are fantastic - lots of real-world experiences and heaps of insight. So far I've had the honour to hear from the CEO of collapsed west coast investment bank Robertson Stephens, the equity captial markets bankers who helped JetBlue go public in 2002, and the debt capital markets bankers who recently did a US$1 billion debt issue with an interest rate swap for FirstData Corporation.

For our mid-term exam, the professor has asked us to memorise a collection of industry terms that we would be expected to know if we worked in the industry. Most of them are fairly standard finance terms like maturity, volatility, warrant, and arbitrage, but we're also expected to know what NASDAQ stands for (about as useful as knowing what PCMCIA stands for), and how the fees for an IPO are distributed amongst the investment banks involved (very important).

I'll admit - I've learnt a great deal in this course, but I've been taking a passive approach to learning in a course where the professor's expecting me to be active. It's a good thing that only my pass/fail status will be reported back to Melbourne for this one as I don't expect I'll do very well. (This has been my approach for most of the subjects I've undertaken here at Columbia - I'm doing courses that will challenge me rather than those that I can cruise through and get a high grade).

Anthony is writing a book!

Check out the book cover - methinks he might have trouble getting this particular project finished. ;-)

An enjoyable break in San Francisco

I've just returned from a sensational four-day break in San Francisco! Columbia has a fantastic concept called 'mid-term break' - a full week off from classes while people who were enrolled in half-term subjects do their exams. So, I took the New Jersey transit (train) out to Newark International Airport, and caught a Boeing 737 Super 80 to Chicago and on to San Fran. A big thank you to my good friend Tristen who hosted me for the four days and took me on several outings on the weekend.

Some of the highlights of the trip:

• Dinner amongst entrepreneurs - on the first night I joined a large group for a dinner in San Francisco's financial district - the main topic of conversation: Germany's lack on entrepreneurialism. This was in spite of one of the guests who had bucked the trend and co-founded a dot com in Germany that had reached Euro 10b market-cap during the boom.
  
• Shopping Downtown - picked up some new 501s at Macys and a very cool woollen trenchcoat from Banana Republic - all set for those chilly New York winter days now
  
• A visit to SF MoMA - besides the regular Picasso's, Mondrian's etc, there was an interesting exhibition of the varied works of German artist Gerhard Richter, and some 1850s photography by Lewis Carroll (of Alice in Wonderland fame)
  
• Networking the Bay Area - I met up with a couple of people working in the Bay Area VC industry for some informational interviews - lots of juicy advice and some potential further contacts! One of them even partially restored my faith in career fulfilment in a big firm.
  
• Jack Johnson concert - "Why don't the newscasters cry when they read about people who die / At least they could be decent enough to put just a tear in their eyes" - I went out to UC Berkeley to see Jack Johnson at a very classic open-air greek style ampitheatre.
  
• College Football - saw my first college football game out at Stanford University. Stanford beat Arizona 16-6. This was also my first exposure to the American concept of tailgating, an activity I sincerely hope never takes off in Australia.
  
• World Series - Go Giants! - the Yankees may have failed dismally in the post-season, but the San Francisco Giants made it all the way to the World Series. Games 1 and 2 were held in Anaheim while I was in San Fran, and I had the unique opportunity to watch game one in a San Francisco brewery bar with a bunch of very excited locals. (SF won game one 4-3, the series is currently tied at 1-1). Tickets for games three and four in SF have been selling in secondary markets for up to US$1000.
  
• A hike amongst the redwoods - on Sunday we headed across the Golden Gate bridge (US$5 toll - ouch!) and went for a breathtaking six-mile hike amongst the Californian redwoods at the Muir Woods National Monument. Absolutely beautiful.
  

Back in New York now - taking it easy for a day before classes resume with Advanced Corporate Finance on Wednesday.

US press ignores Australia's pain

[the age 15.10.2002]

"The British press has dubbed the Bali bombings Australia's own September 11.

But in the US, Australia is hardly rating a mention."

So true.

My observation is that the US press only seem to care about world events in the context of how the event affects them. So, the Bali Bombing is just another international bombing that continues to add to the threat of international terrorism and the security of US citizens.

my last five imoods: sad, subdued, sick, tired, annoyed

It's been a tough week ;-( Hopefully I'll be able to cheer up in time for my holiday in San Francisco, which starts on Wednesday.

Business Week B-School rankings

Business Week released their biennial b-school rankings this week. Columbia has held firm at Number 7. Wharton has finally been toppled from Number 1 by Kellogg. Columbia is the second highest-placed b-school available for exchange from Melbourne Business School, only to be surpased by Chicago which came in at Number 2 overall (a significant improvement on their Number 10 ranking from 2000). As usual Harvard had the highest tuition (US$36,770/yr) but only came in second on median pay post-mba (US$134.6K).

Bali Bombing

The Australian ABC seem to have the best online coverage of the Bali Bombing. Our Federal Opposition leader, Simon Crean, has described this as "Australia's blackest day since World War II."

BTW - all my family are present and accounted for.

Tomorrow's news

Hey! That SMH link is from tomorrow's paper. Gotta love the huge time difference between New York and the Australian east coast.

I've always wanted a harbourside apartment in Sydney...

Maybe I'll be able to afford to live at La Corniche one day...

Where every step you'll take is worth $28,500

[smh 13.10.2002]

"When $8.45 million was splashed out for this 294sqm McMahons Point apartment - a staggering $28,547 a square metre - the mystery buyer couldn't stop at one and paid $6.25 million for a second unit in the block.

The record price for what many regard as the country's best apartment, in the boutique development La Corniche on Sydney's lower north shore, smashed the Australian record by $5,500 a square metre."

The rumor seems to be that the mystery buyer is none other than Qantas Ambassador at Large and movie legend John Travolta,

Vegemite for Morons

I'm not a vegemite fan myself, but for those of you who were always interested in what we Aussies do with the stuff, Grudnuk has a complete demonstration.

Are you British?

Upon hearing my accent here in New York, more people have asked me if I'm British than if I'm Australian. Could it be true? If you combine an fair-dinkum Aussie with a post-graduate education, do they get the right to claim mother England as their home?

It would seem the answer is ... almost. For the UK's Highly Skilled Migrant Program (a points-based visa similar to permanent residency in Australia), the MBA is a contributing factor, but I also need to earn a minimum of 40,000 UK pounds in another country for at least a year before I could qualify (easy in the US, challenging in Australia...)

What's in a name?

Kind of related to the previous post, I've been wondering whether javaboy.blogspot.com is still a suitable URL for my blog. Javaboy was a nickname given to me at my pre-MBA company waaaay back in 1996 when I was dabbling with java applets for the company intranet. It hasn't been used recently, and it just confuses people in the online community.

I've set up a placeholder blog at melbournemba.blogspot.com which I may consider switching to if I decide to stick with the MBA theme for the blog in the long-term. Some of you have been suggesting for quite a few years now that I should have my own domain name (adrianhind.com is still available . . . whatever happened to all those cybersquatters? ;-) It all comes down to how I want to brand myself. Who is my target market segment? What is my positioning strategy? Aaarggh! I've been reading too many marketing textbooks.

Blog*Spot Plus?

I'm considering upgrading to Blog*Spot Plus. Anyone out there who has done so, would you care to share your experiences with me? Thx.

Can you believe it? I miss Qantas!

My big trip to New York and the rest of the world is on a OneWorld Four Continents 'round-the-world' fare issued by Qantas back in Melbourne. It's amazing value: For $2600 Aussies (+ taxes), I got my stopover in New Zealand, my flight to New York, a sidetrip to San Francisco (next week! woo hoo!), and stopovers in London, Singapore, and Bali on the way home. I get to use any of the airlines in the OneWorld alliance, and I can change my ticket after it's been issued for only US$75.

When I originally bought the ticket, I was a little annoyed about the US$75 ticket re-issue fee, but I thought "fair enough, they like to make a little profit out of you if you change your mind later on". Well, after going through the process of changing my itinerary, I've decided to re-label that US$75 as an incompetence tax. I believe most of the incompetence tax should be attributable to American Airlines, although the evidence would suggest that a small portion may indeed need to be allocated to our beloved national airline, Qantas.

The facts:

• The American Airlines web site lists two ticket offices in Manhattan. One of them is a construction site (which I discovered yesterday) and the other is a ticket office for all the major airlines located on Park Ave (next to Grand Central Station) - hint to other travellers: this is the place to go for anything travel related.
  
• It appears that Qantas did not originally charge me for my U.S. departure tax or my Canadian departure tax. American Airlines discovered this today, so on top of the US$75 'incompetence tax', I had to pay US$55 in other airline/airport taxes.
  
• Presumably because they involve a variety of airlines, RTW tickets are still 20th century paper-based tickets. On a paper-based ticket there is a space labelled 'Fare Calculation' which shows all the routings, airlines, and taxes that are included in the price. Apparently, my ticket was so complicated, that they had trouble fitting the details of the fare calculation into the field. How much trouble? Well, for something that should have been as simple as hand over some money and press print, the whole process took 2 3/4 hours!!
  

Now this would have been fine if I was dealing with a pleasant Australian travel consultant, but here in the USA, airline employees seem to have been to anti customer service school or something. They're a whinging bunch, generally from the 'older generation', who never smile, and never show any care for the customer (even if it's an act). It was a painful experience.

But I have my ticket now - ten coupons in total, for flights taking me through to the end of January. Five more flights on American Airlines, and then I'm in the hands of British Airways, for a couple of sectors, before getting on a Qantas 737 in Singapore.

Damn it! I'm a Qantas Gold Frequent Flyer. I expect equivalent service from your so-called 'alliance' partners!!

Geek Review - Iomega ZIP 250 USB Powered drive

While living my nomadic MBA existence here in New York, I am running on a limited feature set of technology. No ADSL connection. No 2nd PC. No CD Burner. And no subwoofer ;-( In fact, all I have is my trusty IBM Thinkpad with DVD drive and my old Palm III (which I'm not actually using).

Realising that I would need a backup solution while 'on-the-road' I brought a few blank ZIP disks with me from Melbourne, and planned to buy a new external ZIP drive when I arrived in New York. (I still have one of the original 100Mb parallel port ZIP drives from around 1996 - it's really really slow, and the transformer is almost as big as the drive itself) So, during the first week or so I ventured into Staples (U.S. equivalent of Officeworks) looking for a ZIP drive that I could plug into my USB port.

The sales assistant convinced me to try the new 750Mb external ZIP drive which available for a promotional price of US$179 (included 3 blank 750Mb disks). (Technology is so cheap these days. I remember when it used to cost.....)

Alas, this device came with an American power adapter (not good for a nomadic Aussie) and could not write to 100Mb Zip disks (important for me as I have about 20 of them back home).

Back at Staples again the following week, I decided to read the fine print on the box, rather than trust the word of the sales assistent, and I picked up the Iomega ZIP 250 USB Powered drive for $129 (no free disks this time).

I have to tell you - if this product were an employee at a consulting firm, it would receive a rating of 'exceeded expectations'. No installation required. Plugged it into the USB port and XP recognised it straight away. No need to reboot my PC for it to work. Complete plug and play. It's sleek, yet funky at the same time. Powered via the USB port. It even works when the laptop itself is running on battery. And it came with some very handy backup/syncing software that runs quietly in the background.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Oh the pain, the trauma, the challenge...

   Britney Spears Aims for a Second Act, as an Adult

[New York Times, 06 Oct 2002]

According to the editor-in-chief of Elle Girl magazine, American teenagers "are very anti-midriff right now". What will Britney do?

Certified MBA

What a scam! After spending US$60,000 on your MBA tuition, why not throw in another $450 and sit the Certified MBA test?

It's bad enough the GMAC have a monopoly on the standard MBA entrance exam, the GMAT, for which they charge around US$200. If the International Certification Institute succeed in convincing major MBA employers to require candidates to have this certification, I'll be really pissed.

FFS

I signed up for one of the many 'events in New York' email lists when I arrived here a few weeks ago. Yesterday, someone sent out a message to the list containing a virus. It happens occassionally, SpamCop picked it up an quarantined it on my machine, so that doesn't bother me too much. What really annoys me though is that the reply-to address for the email list is not an admin account, but is actually the list itself. Added to which, it let's anyone mail to the list.

So, after the virus was detected by various mail servers and clients around the world, several of them sent an autoreply to the reply-to address 'warning' the sender that there was a virus. Of course, all these warning messages were sent out to the entire list as well! Then, some of these list members start getting pissed off because not only have they received a virus, but they're also getting all of these warning messages. So what do they do? They reply to the original message asking to be removed from the list!! ... so now I'm receiving messages every couple of minutes or so from people requesting to be taken off the list.

Of course, no other options are provided for how to get off the list. There's no tagline on the messages, no link to a website to unsubscribe, nothing. Eventually, they (the list administrators) will figure it out, but as one of the list members said, they probably don't even know yet - they're probably lazing around reading the Sunday New York Times.

Week 5 Wrap-up

After an absolutely insane week of study last week culminating in four assignments due in two days, I've actually managed to take a step back from the rigours of the MBA and enjoy myself over the last couple of days. In the spirit of High Fidelity, one of the best movies of all time, here's this week's top five:

Top Five Memorable Moments of Week Five at Columbia:

1. Seeing a girl at the business school cafeteria with a 'number one' haircut and a headpiece made out of circuit boards - fantastic example of a way to deal with the excess capacity in the technology industry. (alas, I do not have a photo to share with you ;-(
   
2. Presenting a proposal (in jest) for Columbia Scholarships for Australian MBA students at a Presentation Skills Workshop on Friday. The theme of my presentation for closing the 'MBA Feasibility Gap.'
   
3. Enjoying all the free food and drink at the all-day inauguration celebration for Columbia University's new president on Thursday.
   
4. Despite number 3, realising the benefit of all the running I've been doing in New York, when I finally fitted into a pair of cool black jeans that I bought a couple of years ago (in anticipation that I'd fit into them ... one day).
   
5. Spending Friday night out in 'the Village' catching up with some friends, going to a comedy club, and enjoying a Sam Adams or three at the local watering holes.

Of course, it's back to the study today. I have to go to the library for a few hours and get up to speed on Black-Scholes and other aspects of the world of Options, Futures, and Warrants.

What is the deal with car hire rates in Manhattan?

It seems to cost about three times as much to hire a car in Manhattan as it does anywhere else in America. I know it's all about supply and demand, but this is ridiculous.

My solution: catch a train to Newark International Airport and hire a car from there.

One Hour Photo

It's been a while since I posted a movie review, and there's a few good reasons for that: (1) Columbia MBA students are very busy people; (2) most cinemas in New York do not offer a student concession; and (3) the typical price for seeing a movie in New York is roughly equivalent to $19 Australian (US$10). However, I recently discovered that Columbia Business School have a special deal with a local cinema chain which brings the price down to US$7, so on Saturday night I ventured out to Lincoln Square to see the movie One Hour Photo.

One Hour Photo is one of those movies that truly separates the cinema going public. It is R-rated, yet contains no sex, violence, or drug use. It is intended to be thought provoking - something the average cinema go-er is not usually up for on a Saturday night. If you look through the reviews on the IMDB site you'll find that most people have trouble "getting" this film. The whole point is that it's supposed to be creepy, not sensationalist. I don't want to give the plot away, but I will say that I think Robin Williams is absolutely brilliant in a completely non-comical role, and that I'll think twice about using the same photo shop for any extending period of time.

I give it an 8 out of 10, but it's highly likely you won't agree with me.

Hint to the outside world

When Adrian doesn't post to his blog for a few days he's either (a) really upset about something, or (b) so incredibly busy that the blog has to take a back foot. In this case, it was (b).